Currently unavailable

From Our Community

1 Image

“I really liked this tea today. I think that the only thing that has me turned off to this blend is that hojicha, for whatever reason, kind of bothers my throat. I can’t tell if this is a me...”
Read full tasting note

“Augh. My computer is all sorts of not-working, and even writing tasting notes is not going so well. I think the computer needs a restart, and perhaps some "medical" attention…....”
Read full tasting note

“Additional notes: I had been thinking of this treasured tea that I’ve only got a couple teaspoons of, but I had some anyway. I think it’s my favorite 52 Teas blend. I just love the...”
Read full tasting note

From 52teas

From Wikipedia:

Hōjicha (ほうじ茶?) is a Japanese green tea that is distinguished from others because it is roasted in a porcelain pot over charcoal; Japanese tea is usually steamed. The tea is fired at high temperature, altering the leaf colour tints from green to reddish-brown. The process was first performed in Kyoto, Japan in the 1920s and its popularity persists today.

Hōjicha infusions have a light- to reddish-brown appearance, and are less astringent due to losing catechins during the high temperature roasting process. The roasted flavours are extracted and predominate this blend: the roasting replaces the vegetative tones of standard green tea with a toasty, slightly caramel-like flavour. The roasting process used to make Hōjicha lowers the amount of caffeine in the tea. Because of its mildness, Hōjicha is a popular tea to serve during the meal or after the evening meal before going to sleep and even preferred for children and elderly.

On one of the forums I follow, someone recently made the charge that flavored teas are always made with the lowest grade of tea available. I take personal affront with this, since I like to use the finest and most unique teas I can find to create our blends. Even our simple flavored black teas are made with high grade Indian black teas. Though I could get cheaper teas, I refuse. This week’s tea of the week and this past weekend’s VIT blend are just further examples of the boundaries 52teas likes to push.

Here’s a toasted green Hōjicha blended with freeze-dried bananas, our honking big coconut flakes and natural flavors. This is a truly delicious treat you are NOT going to want to miss out on. As with the Lemon-Lime Meringue Kukicha, this is a very limited edition blend. I do not have a final pouch count just yet, but these are going to go fast, and when they are gone, they’re gone.

Lastly, I just updated the In-Stock page to reflect our latest inventory. There might be a few teas you thought you missed out on that we do have in stock after all.

At 52teas.com, you will find unique, hand-blended artisan loose leaf teas: a new limited edition creation every week of the year. We pride ourselves on offering truly unique, one-of-a-kind tea blends that you won’t find anywhere else.

28 Tasting Notes

I really liked this tea today. I think that the only thing that has me turned off to this blend is that hojicha, for whatever reason, kind of bothers my throat. I can’t tell if this is a me thing or what; but I feel kinda gunky after drinking this. I tried a plain hojicha last week and had the same problem; so it isn’t anything wrong with 52 tea’s blend.
This tea is super awesome any time of day which what I enjoy about it as my collection has been shrinking. I never feel like I can’t sleep after this so that is a plus in my book. The flavor is heavily banana with notes of pie crust and light coconut. I think that I will try this with the almond milk/coconut milk blend next time I make it.

Augh. My computer is all sorts of not-working, and even writing tasting notes is not going so well. I think the computer needs a restart, and perhaps some “medical” attention…. :/

Anyways, this was the last of the teas I threw into a travel mug this morning, courtesy this time of LiberTeas. I’m still quite the fan of this tea and the hojicha base. It’s so toasty and perfect; the banana flavour isn’t runt-like, but like actual banana chips, and there’s such a lovely creaminess. I’m getting some astringency with my boiling water infusion, but it’s the sort of astringency that I find bearable (hard to explain). I would really like this blend to make a reappearance!!

Additional notes: I had been thinking of this treasured tea that I’ve only got a couple teaspoons of, but I had some anyway. I think it’s my favorite 52 Teas blend. I just love the balance of banana and coconut flavors. Both creamy! And the hojicha is perfect with this blend. I steeped for 45 seconds this time and it was very nice.

Preparation

yum, it’s a tea “nightcap” – hoping there is not too much caffeine in this one. Definitely a dessert tea, great with some soymilk. I don’t see it as a coconut cream pie as much as a coconut banana cake made with whole wheat flour. Anyway it seems to be hitting the spot at the moment.

I was very disapointed when I missed out on the inital VIT teas so a big thank you to Amy Oh for giving me a sample. The hojicha gave this tea a really interesting baked flavour that was still smooth and almost creamy in nature. It mixed well with the banana flavour which tasted quite genuine, and while the coconut was more of an afterthought it worked well with the whole blend too.

This sounded so delicious as I was perusing old 52teas blends here on Steepster that I put it on my shopping list. Lucky for me Amanda still had some in her cupboard and sent me a sample!

I really love the toastiness that hojicha has and this particular blend did not disappoint. The coconut and banana were there, but I found it behind the roastiness of the base. Would have liked it to have been the other way around, but it was tasty nonetheless.

I did resteep the leaves and still found plenty of toastiness in the leaves, but the coconut and banana flavors left the scene. I’m sure I could still get a third cup of tea out of the hojicha if I really wanted to milk this tea for all it was worth, but I’m plenty pleased with the two steeps I had.

I’m starting to wonder what this would be like as a hot tea latte… Sweet, hot, toasty goodness, I bet!

Side note: I really love the huge coconut shavings that Frank uses in his coconut-flavored teas. A true testament to quality over quantity!

I’d snatch this one up if it were reblended!

Preparation

I had planned on trying this tea today … and as it turns out it was the last tea of last month’s shipment … err, that is, teas blended in September but were shipped all at once to me in October as part of the monthly subscription plan. I finally decided that I had to start subscribing, because I ended up ordering every week anyway. This way, my paypal account has time to breathe in between payments … so long as Frank behaves himself and doesn’t make any of those surprise mid-week VIT blends (or 12 days of xmas sampler boxes)

So, anyway, this is the last of my September teas to try from Frank, and wouldn’t you know that the mail arrived a very short time ago and brought my October package. Yay! More tea!

This is pretty tasty, but I really expected to like it more than I do. I love Frank’s banana blends (and I’m very happy he is on a banana kick lately). Don’t get me wrong, I like this a lot and it definitely delivers what it promises … it tastes like coconut and banana, and these two are pretty evenly balanced. I think I need to let it cool a few more minutes to see if I can taste more of the creamy pie taste, which is what I think I’m missing.

Until then, I’ll hold off on rating it.

Edited about 10 minutes later: Ahh… there it is. I can now taste the cream pie flavors. The hōjicha is light and toasty. This is really good.